03/24/2009

I got this done today. I am a little behind on pics because I am overhauling my work space. My goal is to have a place set up all the time to take swatch pics. Right now I have to set up and tear down because I usually do the pics in the kitchen.

Anyway, here is the one you requested. IMO Cougar and Wildcat are quite neutral. I was surprised at the amount of purple in Wildcat. Not overly purple, but you can see it IRL. I think Cougar, Wildcat, and Brown Sugar complement each other very well. I will get this up on the forum, too.

02/28/2009

Let's face it, we are carb addicts in my family. Add to that my love of baking and the good word of bloggers all over about a bread making method that takes very little hands on time or effort, and I have a new obsession. I am referring to the simple 'no knead' bread making method published by food editor Mark Bittman in the New York Times on Nov. 8, 2006. It produces a 1 1/2 pound loaf of Artisan type bread that sells in bakeries for $4 US and up. There are blogs and videos all over the internet regarding this bread. I figure if they can do it, so can I. I have seriously wanted to try this bread for quite some time, but was not sure I had the proper baking equipment. It requires a heavy enclosed pot of cast iron, ceramic, or Pyrex that can withstand 500 degree oven temperatures to steam the loaf for a portion of the baking time. The piece of equipment on my current wishlist is an expensive Le Creuset cast iron French oven. Because of the hefty price tag on the Le Creuset cookware I have fallen in love with, purchasing one takes planning and I need to wait a little longer for that one. However, I discovered that I did own something that would work, and it is also something I rarely use. Enter my over 15 year old (man that is hard to admit.....when did my first cookware purchases age that much?!!!!) Corningware French White 4L casserole with a domed lid.

First I mixed the dough. It literally took me less than three minutes.

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp instant yeast

2 tsp salt

a little over 1 1/2 cups water

Mix the dry ingredients first and then add the water. Once all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, cover the bowl and allow it to proof (a fancy term for sit) in around 70 degree temp for 18-24 hours. I just mixed it up the day before I needed the bread and let it sit overnight. I initially had my doubts, but by the next day, it looked like the dough in all the videos.

Heavily flour an area to roll it out. Scrape the dough out onto the floured surface and flour the top of the dough. I stretched out the dough one way and folded it in thirds and then did the same thing in the other direction. I put a thin layer of white cormeal on wax paper and put the dough seam side down, and then topped with more cornmeal. I covered the dough sitting on the wax paper with a flour sack towel and let it rise for about an hour and a half. This small bit of handling sounds complicated, but it all took about another three minutes. Most of the problems bakers encountered here had to do with the dough being sticky. Just make sure to use enough flour on your hands and surfaces.

An hour into the rising, I put the casserole lined with parchment paper in the oven to preheat at 450. Then, at the end of the rise time, I flipped the dough over from the wax paper into the casserole and baked it with the lid on for 30 minutes, and with the lid off for another 15 minutes. I immediately turned it out into a cutting board. I let it cool for about an hour before cutting.

All in all, it is a great crusty bread with little effort. I am sure I spent less than 10 minutes total on it and used ingredients that cost less than a dollar. My second attempt will be Parmesan Bread! If you are interested in trying it yourself, I highly recommend doing a search for videos.

02/03/2009

Thanks to Helen for reminding me that I had not done the Holiday lippies! Here they are along with the last of the Valentine Kisser Slickers. I did put in a few colors for reference on the Valentine lippies. Centerfold is similar to Divine, but a little less pink. Reddy is definitely a tad cooler than Hot Blooded.

02/02/2009

Yes, I am failing miserably at getting all of these things swatched. Karen just keeps rolling out new colors. Here are a few of the latest lippies and the eyeshadow quads. My skintone is neutral and very pale at the moment. Peace and Mimosa lippies are about the depth of my lip color.

10/17/2008

Karen formulated a 'Black Label' lippie in two LE colors, and an eyeshadow trio to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation to end breast cancer. The Black Label lippies are made from the lipstick formula with added passion fruit oil and cranberry seed oil. To make the whole collection extra special, there is added edible 23K gold leaf. The lippies are packaged in a black velvet sheath tied with a pink ribbon, and the eyeshadow trio is packaged in a small black organza bag. Both are perfect for gift giving. The lippies are Monarch, a luxurious gold with hints of copper and pink glimmer, and Carpe Diem, a golden rose berry shade. The Live, Laugh, and Love Eyeshadow Trio is loosely based on the colors of Black Hills Gold. For each lippie purchased at $9.95, $6 will be donated to the Komen Foundation. For each eyeshadow trio purchased at $11.25, $7 will be donated to the Komen Foundation.

October is also Karen's Birthday month. Happy Birthday, Karen! She is having a special gift with purchase. Any purchase over $25 will qualify for the LE Superstar eyeshadow, a blackened golden peach.

Chambord and Indian Pink are shimmers, and the rest are matte. I quite like this bunch. Not sure if the Hestia will make it out very often, but the rest are pretty nice. Chambord was my 'wild card' and I think it is my favorite of the bunch.

10/03/2008

I did the best I could with these. Since we all wear them in a diffused 'pattern' on the apples of our cheeks, I wanted a swatch that was heavy enough to discern the color value, but not so dark as the eyeshadow swatches I typically do. Those that look light on my light neutral skin will be best suited for fair complexions. Those that show up as heavily pigmented typically are, and I require a dual fiber brush for their application. Sample size is 1/8 tsp. in a 5 gram jar for $1.25. Full size blushes are 1 1/2 tsp. in a 10 gram jar for $6.50. Bronzers (Beach Bunny and Tahiti Sweetie) in full size are $8.25 for 2 teaspoons in a 20 gram jar. (They are still labelled as "Sept." mostly for consistency, as they are in the line as of September of '08.) They are loosely divided into warm and cool. I can wear most of these, so don't let their categorization limit your possibilities.

10/02/2008

(I have been holding out on you guys for a few weeks. I totally apologize but we had to be sure it was going to work out.)

Let me start with a little background. Ever since DD took Zoo Camp over the Summer, she has been asking for a new pet. First it was a lizard, then a snake.....then a chinchilla. Obviously, we said 'No'. We are not huge animal people. We do have our Princess Sagwa, a black 6 year old Persian cat. We also have a DS with Reactive Airway Disease (a complicated type of Asthma that generally starts as a cough for him, and then slowly goes into respiratory distress. It can easily be treated with steroids these days in plenty of time, but it is still a concern.) He is slightly allergic to dogs and cats, but seems to be outgrowing it. We had a pretty uneventful Summer/Early Fall. Until.....

Three weeks ago, I was sitting on our three season porch drinking my coffee in the morning. It was cold and rainy. Outside my window I heard a cat crying. (I was sure it was one of the big cats that roam our neighborhood. I even saw one outside our front window in 5 below temps a few years ago. He is still around, by the way!) My DH went outside to look. Turns out it was a 7 week old kitten with no Mama in sight. She was really skinny and hungry. We caught her in our cat carrier and brought her on the porch. We kew we would have to keep the kitten seperated from our cat for a few weeks. Also, there are diseases that the kitten could pass to the Princess, so we had to tread carefully. If it turned out the kitten had feline leukemia, we would not be able to keep her. We named her Cookie Dough because she has the same coloring as cookie dough ice cream. Yum!

We made our first trip to the Vet. She could not really have the feline leukemia test until she was about 12 weeks (I guess there are many false positives with a young kitten.) The Vet suggested watching her teeth as she would begin losing teeth at around 12 weeks. We made her a pen on the porch and started feeding her, as well as treating her for fleas and starting her course of shots. We also gave her a bath.

Luckily, she lost a few teeth over the weekend putting her age at about 10-12 weeks. And her test was negative. Also, the Princess seems like she will tolerate the kitten pretty well. It is really funny because this kitten just hangs with me all day. Right now she is cuddled up to me with her paws on the keyboard of my laptop. Just so you know, this was about the only way we would have considered another pet. Basically, she found us!